


Idyllic Avril Lavigne

by Terminallydepraved



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: F/F, First Date, Fluff and Humor, New Years, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 00:56:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13224837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terminallydepraved/pseuds/Terminallydepraved
Summary: Gotta ring in the New Year right with the one you care about the most.





	Idyllic Avril Lavigne

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is for razzledazzlerred who wnated to see osme pakumachi!!  
> im a litl bit intoixated at thsi point in the evneing but i hpe yuo all enjoy this and ecelebrate reasponibly!!!  
> i lvoe u all and ists bee n a belesed year wriritng for you all. i love u all <3  
> THAnk u NADJA FOR THE title i lvobe u and ur laebsien beansds

Though the night was cold and only going to get colder as the busy streets wound down and quiet overtook the small park, Machi didn’t worry about freezing. No, she had much better things to worry about than the numbness of her hands or the stinging chill assaulting her nose. She again looked at her phone to check the time, frowning when only a minute had passed since the last time she had given in to the insistent urge to check it. She bounced on her heels a little and readjusted the earbuds in her ears. Calming music played softly as a background track to her nervous dance. 

Only fifteen more minutes until the date. Just fifteen more minutes, and she would be here. 

For all her nerves and ill-spent worry, Machi had to smile despite herself; she could think of no better way to ring in the new year than with Paku. Beautiful, aloof, classy Paku. Nothing to worry about with Paku. Nothing at all to get nervous about...

But she did have to worry about whether or not she would manage to make it the… She paused, looking again at her phone. Machi frowned, kicking at a clod of dirty snow near her foot, sending it flying off into the shoveled piles lining the emptying sidewalk. If she would manage to make the fourteen minutes until her date arrived. The sky above was growing darker as it neared midnight, though in the city it never truly got dark. More… orange than anything, an ominous sort of glow that seemed right at home with Machi’s discontent. 

And that was what it was, she told herself firmly, thumbing through the songs on her phone to something a little more upbeat. She wasn’t nervous. Not at all. She knew Paku– Had known her for years, even. So what if this was the first time she’d gotten the courage up to ask the other woman out for something a little more meaningful than drinks? It would be fine. Just fine–

A hand tapped her shoulder from behind and Machi promptly jumped half a foot in the air, whipping around with fists ready to fight off whatever it was behind her. Her earbuds protested the move, falling from her ears just in time to hear a low, familiar laugh that sent warmth straight through Machi’s numb extremities. 

“Oh, you were listening to music?” Paku laughed, pink-cheeked and as gorgeous as ever in her fitted coat and scarf. A mauve hat hid most of her blonde hair from sight, but a few locks still hung free, framing her angular face prettily. “I wondered why you didn’t hear me call out to you.”

Slowly Machi relaxed, her nervous energy giving way to complete embarrassment. She grabbed her fallen earbuds and looked discreetly at her phone screen. 11:34. In all her worry, she’d lost track of the time passing. 

“Sorry,” she said, feeling a little underdressed in her own old coat and mittens. “You look great.”

Paku smiled. “You look as beautiful as ever,” she returned. “So, what do you have planned for tonight? I’ve never had a date on New Years Eve before, so I’m very excited.”

Machi swallowed. Neither had she. In all honesty, she rarely had dates at all, let alone ones she initiated. “Um, I’m not sure. I sorta figured we’d wing it…”

“Oh, well, that’s always fun too.” Paku crossed her arms and cocked her head, looking back towards the city. “We only have a half hour or so until midnight, so whatever we do would need to be close by if we want to ring it in properly.”

Close by didn’t allow for much. The nearest thing to the park was a strip mall, a bit further off the bar district. Could they make it to a bar if they hurried? Maybe doing this on New Years was a bad idea after all. All the bars would be packed, and there were no shops open to walk around. Any restaurants that might have been open were sure to be filled to the brim with reservations, and those that weren’t were sure to be the sorts of places Paku, as classy as she was, would never want to patronize. Machi bit her lip, shuffling on her feet. Why hadn’t she planned this better? 

Paku didn’t seem bothered by the realization that her date hadn’t done a good job setting this evening up. If anything, she just smiled wider. “Why don’t we walk around the park?” she offered, holding out her gloved and elegant hand. “There’s definitely no crowd here to cramp our style.”

Machi smiled weakly, taking the proffered hand. “I guess its better than standing here,” she murmured, letting Paku lead them along the winding, shoveled paths that ran through the well-maintained park. 

And it was, honestly. Machi held Paku’s hand and smiled to herself, a little giddy at being able to walk like this with her at all. The scent of Paku’s perfume filled the cold, crisp air, and her voice was a soft song as she chatted about this and that, about the walk here and the idiots she saw along the way already drunk off champagne and the promise of a fresh start in the new year. It was idyllic, really. A dream come true. Machi wrapped her arms around Paku’s, resting her cheek against the woman’s shoulder. Warm, she thought. Paku was so warm. 

“So,” Paku said, her voice a little lower, a little more intimate as she looked down at Machi clinging to her arm. She smiled softly, and Machi felt her cheeks color from something other than the cold. “Why did you want to ask me out tonight?”

Machi shrugged, looking ahead at the orange light of the sky and how it bled into the snow below. “Who else would I want to spend tonight with?” Paku was all she ever thought about most days, and despite it taking courage aplenty to ask the woman out, she really could think of no better person to be with when the clock hit midnight. 

“You sure it wasn’t just because you wanted to kiss me at midnight?” Paku asked breezily, reading Machi’s mind as easily as if she… Machi looked down at how she was wrapped around Paku’s arm. Oh, dammit. Of course. 

“That’s cheating,” she said ruefully, holding all the tighter though to show she really didn’t mind. 

Paku laughed, kissing the top of Machi’s hat. “And you’re really cute,” she said, slowly bringing their stroll to a stop.

“I guess we’re at the end,” Paku observed, taking in the massive pile of plowed snow blocking the path. It had been scraped clean from the cobbled walk beneath their feet, revealing a sort of circular space that perhaps was meant for joining various paths together. Paku looked down at Machi with an enigmatic smile. “Too bad they covered the benches up. We could have rang in the New Year while sitting down. Should we head back the way we came?”

Machi bit her lip. She looked at her phone. 11:57. Almost midnight. If they went back now, they’d be walking when it hit, and that wasn’t very romantic a setting. Sure, this place wasn’t very romantic either with its dirty snow and plow tracks, but it was private. They were all alone here, almost as if they were the only ones in the world. 

They had three minutes to kill, and Machi slowly smiled, an idea finding her just in the nick of time. 

“Lean down here for a second.”

Paku raised a brow but did as she was told, eyes going wide when Machi dug in her pocket for the earbuds she’d shoved in there earlier. Going up on her toes, she put one of the earbuds in Paku’s ear, and the other in her own. 

“What are you doing–” Paku tried to ask, but Machi just covered her lips with her fingers. It was beginning to snow now, soft and quiet. No one was around. No one was breathing here but them.

“Just… go with it,” Machi breathed, hitting play on her phone. The music started, gentle in her ear. She looked into Paku’s eyes and placed her hands on the other woman’s hips, smiling nervously at what came next. “Dance with me?”

Machi shifted uneasily for a minute as Paku stared at her, but then her lips curled into a happy little smile. She laughed, resting her long arms on Machi’s shoulders, pulling them closer together. “You’re surprising me a lot tonight,” Paku admitted, swaying along to the simple ballad playing in their ears. “Are you a closet romantic?”

If Machi colored at that, she could pretend to the moon and back that it was from the cold air. She looked over Paku’s shoulder, frowning self-consciously. “Would it matter if I lied?” she asked, raising a brow only to make Paku laugh. 

Paku rested her head on Machi’s shoulder, kissing her cheek sweetly. “It wouldn’t,” she whispered, closing her eyes as the song turned to crescendo. “But I’d let you pretend.”

Shivering was easy to pass off as anything else, but Machi couldn’t quite brush off the soft little sigh she gave at those words. She wrapped her arms around Paku’s neck, drowning in the scent of her perfume, in the warmth she gave off like the sun. For as weird and nerve wracking as this night had been, Machi couldn’t complain at all. This moment was perfect. Utterly perfect. 

“Thank you for asking me out tonight,” Paku murmured, her voice just a soft harmony to the song playing in their ears. They swayed, spun gently, and didn’t seem to care as the snow speckled their shoulders and hats and cheeks with dusty down. “I probably would have just spent it at home on my own if you hadn’t.”

Machi smiled. “That doesn’t sound so bad,” she teased, meeting Paku’s eye. “You’ve got all those cats you feed to keep you company.”

Paku leaned closer, lifting a hand to cup Machi’s cheek with her warm gloved hand. “They are good company,” she admitted, eyes falling to half mast, “but I doubt they kiss half as well as you do.”

The world seemed to stand still. Machi certainly did, ending their little dance as she found herself caught in Paku’s gaze like a fly trapped in a web. She stopped breathing, but it didn’t matter. Not much did now. 

The song slowly faded into nothing, leaving only the sound of their breathing behind. The vague, far off sounds of the city around them seemed to removed from the moment. The air seemed to slow, time standing still. Machi looked up into Paku’s eyes, heart pounding furiously in her chest. She went up on her toes. She clutched at Paku’s hips with hands that felt a little sweaty. 

A clock off in the distant center of the city struck midnight. The kiss sang like fireworks and champagne, like the promise of something wonderful in the days to come. Paku cupped Machi’s cheek with her warm hand, smiling against her lips as she kissed back. It was amazing. Better than anything Machi had imagined, and she would be the last to admit she thought about this daily. 

“Happy New Year, Machi,” Paku whispered with a smile, eyes staring deeply into Machi’s as she pressed their foreheads together. 

“Happy New Year,” Machi tried to say, but it probably came out a mess like the rest of her. But it was okay. It was okay, because Paku wouldn’t care, and if she did, Machi wouldn’t give her time to think about it. With a laugh she went up on her toes and kissed the woman again, letting the world fade away for one more song that didn’t need to play. 

As far as first dates could go, this one had been something memorable. And, Machi mused, leaning into Paku’s arms, it could definitely be the start of something great. 

**Author's Note:**

> yooooooooooooo check meo nt on tunglr if u wana see more my rwiing i can writeu a fic@! jsut check out my plage nad we can talk!


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